The Stranger's Tale, Part One: Myst
by The Texas Wyrm
Summary: My name is not important. What is important is that I had stumbled upon a most intriguing book, a book titled MYST. It is there my adventures began... Dramatization of my first MYST experience.
1. Preface: About and Disclaimers

_I realized the moment I fell into the Fissure that the book would not be destroyed as I had planned. It continued falling into that starry expanse, of which I had only a fleeting glimpse. I have tried to speculate where it might have landed, but I must admit that such conjecture is futile. Still, questions about whose hands might one day hold my Myst book are unsettling to me. I know my apprehensions might never be allayed, and so I close, realizing that perhaps the ending has not yet been written. _

- Atrus, son of Gehn

_**The Stranger's Tale**_

_**Part One: Myst**_

**Disclaimer (Or, render onto Cyan what is Cyan's)**

Myst is copyright the good folks at Cyanworlds (formerly Cyan, inc.), Ubisoft, Presto Studios, and a whole bunch of other folks. Thanks for the great games, guys!

The Stranger (as a term) is also copyright these folks, although this particular instance has absorbed my personality. The personality and this particular adventure of the Stranger is mine.

**Author's Notes (Or Pre-Game Analysis)**

You may notice that this dramatization of one of my Myst Journals, my original, reads different from other Journals. Most Myst Journals converted to web format tend to have a "walkthrough feel" to them: "First I did this, then this, then this. Then I did this..." That's boring, and it's not telling a story.

The idea behind Myst is not that your playing just another game. You're THERE. You're not going through the motions; you're exploring, puzzling things out, trying to find the truth of the matter hidden beneath the surface of the island. It is that sense of wonder and mystery that I try to capture here, trying to make the Journal read like someone actually writing in the book to record his thoughts as he takes in that world, rather than a notebook of puzzles needed to be solved and a move history.

On another note, I thought I had Myst pretty much figured out. Because Trap Books are formed from an Ancient D'ni Formula found by Atrus, it was probably a device still in development by D'ni science, and as such could have some pretty wonky behavior, like the Miraculous Self-Ripping and Teleporting Pages.

But, RAWA (AKA. Richard A. Watson, Cyan programmer and ultimate D'ni historian) said that the Trap Books of Myst and Riven are gameplay devices and not a historical part of D'ni Book technology. As RAWA explains it:

Completing the book is the player's way of saying "I want to free this brother." And we simplified that to its most basic elements - you're stuck in the Prison Age; he's out.

You want the complicated, more historically accurate way to free a brother?

1) complete the book so you can go to the Age he's trapped in 2) you'll have to find a spare Myst Linking Book somewhere or neither of you are coming back. This complicates the interface, and changes the game if you can carry a Myst Linking Book around with you the whole game that you can use at any time. 3a) go to the prison Age without a Linking Book - the brother and you are trapped together forever, or as long as the brother lets you live (how long do you think that will be?) 3b) Bring a Linking Book. The brother bops you on the head and links out, damaging the Book in the process so you can't follow him. 4) You're stuck in the Prison Age; he's out. We've had to do a lot more filming, modeling, rendering, changing the interface, etc. to essentially get the same ending as Myst already shows.

As a further complication, RAWA says in response to the question of whether sound is transmitted through the gateway image, "real answer - No. Sound doesn't travel through the Books."

Suddenly, my world was a place of confusion and madness. Although most of the Myst story do fine without any mention of the Trap Books, there are two points that need to be addressed:

Assuming that the red and blue pages going missing and on other ages is historically accurate (judging by RAWA's pt. 1 above), and the red and blue books are ordinary Linking Books to Prison Ages and their pages have no special properties (like the Miraculous Self-Ripping and Teleporting Pages properties the game's Trap Books seemed to have), how did the pages get where you find them?

If its true no sound is transmitted through Books, and we know that sight is transmitted only one way through the Book (from the place linked to to the image panel of the Book), where does Atrus's Green Book speeches and the brothers' red/blue Book speeches come in? They contain vital information for the player/Stranger. Atrus tells you he needs the white page, and Sirrus and Achenar agree on two things: that the code to the fireplace is on page X (although why I'm bothering avoiding spoilers at this point is something I don't understand), and that you shouldn't touch the Green Book (which, given that at that point I trusted neither of them, clued me that touching and opening the Green Book was exactly what I should be doing!)

We'll get to the answers as the chapters come, so I don't spoil the surprise.


	2. Prologue: A Most Intriguing Book

_**Prologue: A Most Intriguing Book**_

My name is not important. What is important is that I had stumbled upon a most intriguing book, a book titled "MYST". It is there my adventures began...

* * *

_Earth, 20th century_

"Fifty bucks!" came my exclamation. "No way! No way in HELL am I paying that much! Even for a new muffler!"

I love books. I love to read them. I love to collect them. Boy, do I love to collect them! You should see my house. My friends say that it's more of a library than a home, stacked to the ceiling with boxes of those oh-so-wonderful bound pages of dried and flattened wood pulp, scribed with those the delicate curves of letters and symbols. Settling down with a good book in my lap to read the night away is more engaging than any silly TV show!

Still, I don't like paying too much for one. Thus, my haggling...

"Look, you," said the book seller in his infinitely calm voice, "the book is fifty bucks. No more. No less. Well, except for the tax, of course. But you know what I mean. If you don't like the price, you don't have to buy it, but I ain't budging."

The bookseller looked into my eyes with that steely gaze he gives me every time I try to negotiate a better price. Too often, I relent.

"Okay."

Like now.

The sale was rung up. Fifty bucks came out of my pocket and into his -- figuratively speaking, of course -- plus that percentage that went to Unca Sam came out of my pocket and into... wherever it goes. But the book was mine.

The title?

MYST.

... You German people can stop laughing now.

* * *

I didn't even wait to put down my stationary to open this new book that I had just aquired. The book wasn't brand new; it looked rather weathered, but I'm no book aging expert, so I couldn't tell how old it was from that. So I started skimming it as I slowly navagated the piles of books in my house with practiced ease. 

Although I didn't bother to put the shopping bag down, I was pretty hungry. In my kitchen, I opened a package of a pair of Ding-Dongs. I munched happily on the Ding-Dong with one hand, holding the stationary bag with the other and using the free thumb to flip through the massive tome.

I noted idly that the bulk of the book was written in a strange, flowing, mysterious language. I would later learn this language was D'ni, but I'm getting ahead of myself. As it happens, I don't read D'ni. However, there were English translations on the opposing pages. How convenient. 

Finally, I flipped to the last page. I was, at this point, well into the second Ding-Dong, and I was so surprised at what I found, I stopped chewing.

There on the last page, was a panel with a picture on it.

A moving picture. Of the island I had just read about.

A moving picture with a dollup of crumbly cake and white filling from my Ding-Dong on it, freshly dropped.

Absently, I wiped the crumb from the moving picture. That was a mistake, because it sent my stomach in a tumble and the world faded to black around me...

**Author's Notes (or Post-Chapter Analysis)**

_Myst_ had problems in Germany because 'Mist' in German means something like animal manure.

Finally, the Linking Books are written in D'ni usually, so there's no an Earthling would be able to understand it. However, the MYST blurb in the manual says that you could read it. This seemed the perfect compromise.


	3. Chapter 1: Docked on Myst Island

**Disclaimer (Or, render onto Cyan what is Cyan's)**

_Myst_ is copyright the good folks at Cyanworlds (formerly Cyan, inc.), Ubisoft, Presto Studios, and a whole bunch of other folks. Thanks for the great games, guys!

The Stranger (as a term) is also copyright these folks, although this particular instance has absorbed my personality. The personality and this particular adventure of the Stranger is mine.

**_Chapter 1: Docked on Myst Island_**

_Myst Island, Dock_

I stumbled as a world faded into view around me, unprepared and unaccustomed as I was to linking. I also fell, unable to recover from my stumble, flat on my face, the remains of my second Ding-Dong bouncing across the well-weathered planks of the dock I apparently "landed" upon.

First things first.

I snatched up the remains of the Ding-Dong and stuffed it in my mouth. It was just under the three-second rule, so it was still good!

... Don't look at me like that, like you've never picked up a piece of food off the floor and ate it.

I looked about, absorbing the sight of what looked like the perfect realization of the island described in the MYST book, and in the moving panel at the back of the same book, as I finished off the Ding-Dong.

Suddenly, as I was finishing the Ding-Dong, I was struck with a horrific realization: This was an abandoned island! There were no supermarkets for at least ten miles, so that was probably the last Ding-Dong I would have for quite some time.

No more Ding-Dongs! Arrgh!

I spent maybe a minute cursing my life and that damn book that brought me here. This island was not going to be my prison, I decided, and I would get back to my own time and place and back to my Ding-Dongs.

A second later, practicality set in. No doubt this place was going to be my home for the foreseeable future. As long as I was here, I might as well enjoy all this island had to offer.

The island differed markably from the description of the English translation of the strange language it was written in (at least, I assumed that was an English translation). There were many structures now present on the island, and well-beaten paths existed between them. Yet, it was still unmistakably the same island described in the book. The dock, for instance, was precisely as described to the smallest detail, right down to the rough grain of the wood. The only new items were a switch on the far end and a sunken ship in the water next to the dock, probably the fault of a drunken captain. At least it wasn't an oil supertanker.

My first action on this island was to flip this switch. I don't really know why I flipped it. It must have been the old habits emerging, acquired from various adventure games I played back in my world. The switch was next to a flight of stairs, which came to a long concrete runway (partially intruded by the round building next to it. I wonder whose bright idea that was.) A flight of stairs took me up to the plateau, where I found a pair of gears and another switch. I flipped that switch, but there wasn't anything else to do here but admire the view.

Although it was a nice view, with the ocean waves lapping up against the side of the island and the horizon barely visible through the thin mist surrounding the island, I figured I should get to know the island thoroughly before I move on to making it my involuntary home.

I stomped the concrete where the Gears were embedded. "I dub thee... Gear Plateau!" My finger shot out to the next distinctive feature of the island. "You are the Superpine!" I declared, my finger now pointed at the super-large tree near the edge of the forest. My finger shot down. "Hazelwood Dock!" I shouted at the dock, my finger pointing accusingly at it. "A&M Building!" I anointed the round building that some idiot had made intrude on the runway above the Hazelwood dock. "Mini-Parthenon!" I declared of the Greek-like building right next to A&M Building. "The Promenade!" I said to the small mall in front of the Mini-Parthenon. "Schwartzwald Shack! Outhouse!" I appropriately named the wooden shack in the middle of the forest, which I named Schwartzwald, and the small brick structure on the other side of the Promenade.

I would learn their real functions later on and would be suitably renamed, but I could be forgiven as those structures looked as such from this distance.

My finger wandered up to the next feature I could see. "Isengrad!" I named the small, lonely tower at the end of the island, not able to make out much detail at this distance. I scanned over. "The Spaceship, and Barad-dur!" I named the final features of the island. I can only hope Tolkien could forgive me.

Thus, began my explorations.

* * *

With a set of named landmarks in hand, I sketched out a rough map of the island, and with this rough map in hand, I descended the stairs to start my explorations in ernest. The remainder of the day was spent familiarizing myself with the structures on the island as best I could.

Since A&M Building was the nearest structure I came to, so this was the first building I decided to explore. Inside was a large room with a small observation station in the center. It had a comfy chair, and a panel above. Lighted, the ceiling was a dull white, but clicking the switch off revealed the hidden structure above as white specks became visible. The panel itself showed a field of these points at great magnification, with controls to the side denoting the date to the minute between 12:00am Jan 1, 0000 to 11:59pm Dec 31, 9999. Each date scanned to a particular view which I discovered by fiddling around with the controls.

Clicking on the light, I scratched out the name "A&M Building" and put in "Planetarium".

It was near this building next to the path made of wooden sleepers that I found the following note:

_Catherine,_

_I've left for you a message of utmost importance in our fore-chamber beside the dock. Enter the number of marker switches on this island into the imager to retrieve the message._

_Yours, Atrus_

Well, that gave me an important bit of information. There were things called 'Marker Switches' around the island (I didn't connect them with the switches I'd been flipping just yet), and there was a fore-chamber where this Atrus fellow left a message. I wasn't about to pursue such things just now; I didn't want to stumble into some arcane trap that you see in Indiana Jones -- I was in no mood to tear through some tunnel with a big boulder on my six. Nevertheless, meeting this Atrus fellow would hopefully result in me getting back to my world.

There was, of course, only one dock on this island: Hazelwood dock. I scratched a note on my map to explore the area more carefully.

The Mini-Parthenon was some sort of library containing a bunch of books, most clearly burnt. I could not help shedding a tear at the waste; to me, a book was a thing of beauty, and to destroy one unforgivable.

The interior library itself was an octagonal building, with the bookshelf on its eastern side, opposite the arched exit. The walls adjacent to the small bookshelf had pictures; the south-western side had a fireplace, the north-western side had a map of the island.

When touching this map, a set of crude holograms showed up, showing a flickering knob corresponding to the tower at the top of the mountain, and images representing the library, the sunken ship, and the gears. I wondered why only these structures were represented.

The north wall contained a small alcove with a red book resting in it, while the south wall contained a matching alcove with a blue book. When opened, the books had images like the Myst book that brought me here, but the panels themselves showed nothing but static.

I scratched out "Mini-Parthenon" and relabeled the building "Library" on my map.

The Spaceship was appropriately named for a spaceship docked at the north-east corner of the island, accessible by raised path. The ship itself looked like it was made of wood, unsuitable for true space-flight. I wondered briefly why such a silly choice was made.

Schwartzwald Shack was in the Scwartzwald forest, containing a safe and a boiler of some kind. I played with the valve wheel, but got only a hissing noise. The Superpine had a brick wall collar around it, as if someone had poured concrete around the poor thing like a bozo.

I found no reason to rename these structures.

The Outhouse was nearby the Shack, and unlike a regular outhouse, it was actually the structure sheltering a flight of stairs leading underground. At the end of the passage I found was a room overlooking a series of electric generators. I played with the 5 x 2 control panel of buttons, finding I could generate a variety of voltages. I must have blown a fuse or circuit breaker, though, as the power indicator to the spacecraft, which normally stayed in lock-step with the voltage meter, went to zero and refused to move somewhere north of 50 volts.

What was more, I laid my hand on some of the brick and found it crumbly. If anything, this proved that the place really existed. Places change, even deserted places -- buildings still decay.

Things change. I scratched out "Outhouse" and relabeled the brick building "Power Station" in honor of that.

This brought me to the last structure I could readily evaluate, only I could only do it some way off. The island tower I had named "Isengrad" was actually a clock tower. There was no readily visible bridge to the island, but I knew the clock was broken or otherwise not running, because I checked on it at different points of the day and found that the hands didn't move.

Come to think of it, the sun hadn't moved either. I knew I'd spent several hours exploring before I noticed this.

I did find a setting mechanism for the clock across the bay near me, though. There was a Marker Switch on the small island, but I didn't flip it as there was no way to get to it. (I couldn't swim, and I wasn't about to start learning now.) This brought the total up to eight, each switch marked on my handy map. "Isengrad" was now scratched out, replaced by "Clock Tower".

I spied the note to check out the antechamber by Hazelwood Dock. With no obvious way to get to Barad-dur, it was the only thing I could do.

* * *

_Myst Island, Imaging Chamber_

It was a good thing I took the shortcut by sliding down the soil ramp between the runway and the dock. I'd never have spotted the antechamber entrance otherwise, hidden as it was. The heavy door opened with just a small shove, revealing another long passageway leading deep under the island. As I walked down the passageway, I audibly gasped at the the fine workmanship. At the bottom I found what appeared to be a roiling pool of water at the center of a large room.

I had thought the button at the front would simply turn the bubbles off, but it had a more interesting effect than that. Instead of the pool becoming calm, it disappeared! Disappeared, revealing a complex mechanism beneath it. A hologram! I played with the button several times, alternately deactivating and reactivating the holographic pool.

My mind went back to the message. Perhaps this the imager Atrus was speaking of. There must be a control somewhere, and I found it quickly beside the stairs.

The panel exposing the mechanism had several entries on it, but one caught my attention immediately: Marker Switch Diagram. I noted it down and entered it into the mechanism I found behind the panel. Back at the imager, I pushed the button again, and it showed a familiar configuration.

I squeezed my nose, laughing at my stupidity. "Of course! It's obvious!" They were the switches I had been throwing out of sheer habit all along! I had only thrown seven of them, but Atrus said I only had to put in the number there were on the island: eight. I did so, and when I pushed the button again, a bearded, bespectacled face appeared in the image well...

_"Catherine, my love. I have to leave quickly, something terrible has happened. It's hard for me to believe... most of my books have been destroyed._

_"Catherine, it is one of our sons. I suspect Achenar, but I shouldn't leap to conclusions... I'll find him and Sirrus as well._

_"Oh, I should have known better than to have left my library unchecked for so long!_

_"Well, I have removed the remaining undamaged books from the library and placed them in their places of protection. You should not have to use the books until I return, but... if you've forgotten the access keys, remember the tower rotation._

_"Oh, and don't worry Catherine, everything will be fine. I'll see you shortly. Oh, and erase this message after you've viewed it just to be safe."_

The image faded as if it were never there. So, Atrus has two sons, and he suspects one of them may be involved in destroying his books. Having experienced his handiwork myself, it was a shame that this happened. All those wonderful books that I will never read!

I strode from the chamber, all my will focused on solving this mystery. However, I paused as I stepped out into the sunlight again, a thought occurring to me. _Catherine had not erased Atrus's message!_

**Author's Notes (or Post-Game Analysis)**

The three-second rule: Everyone's heard of the three-second rule, right?

The Oil Supertanker Crack: Joseph Hazelwood will never live that down!

A&M Building: Here I brand myself a Teasipper (University of Texas Alum). We have a long standing rivalry with Texas A&M, the Aggies, and they are the butt of many jokes, playing the part of the prototypical idiots.


End file.
